To find out more about what motivates a serial killer go to: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Motivation_and_emotion/Book/2015/Serial_killing_motivation This work is license under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this License, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

1. What Motivates a
Serial Killer?
By Bridgette Craig (u3096690)

2. Introduction
• Serial killers are rare so once convicted and
incarcerated they become famous.
• A Serial Killer has had many definitions over the
past decade but the modern meaning describes an
individual who has committed more than three
murders over a period that exceeds a month
(Tithecott, 1997; Cahill, 2014).
Figure 1. Charles
Manson, (Wikipedia,
2014)
Figure 2. Dennis
Rader (BTK),
(Vigliotti, 2015)

3. Psychological Theories
• MacDonald triad (Lee & Choi, 2014)
• The Attachment Theory (Myers et al., 2008)
• Child Abuse (Becker & French, 2004).
• Theories such as these have been brought up in law
Zagury (2001). But still these notions are thought to
be inaccurate, generalized and obscure (Silvio et al.,
2006; Keppel ＆ Birnes, 2003).
• Serial killers are very specific and individualistic,
therefore no generalized murder theory can apply to
every single one.

4. Research
• Psychology based research and theories are important
because they are supposed to help find specific traits or
characteristics within a child and therefore prevent deaths
(Tithecott, 1997).
• Though this is unethical because you cannot convict
someone who has not committed a crime.
• There is no known rehabilitation therapies that can aid
serial killers because of their heinous crimes, it is
unethical to give them the privilege of being rehabilitated
and eventually be allowed to be released.
(Giannangelo,1996).

5. Conclusion
• Serial Killers are hard to strictly define, as every
convicted serial killer is different, and never fit the same
type of theory or motivates as another. For this reason it is
nearly impossible to predict accurately if someone will
become a serial killer.
• There may be patterns shown, such as within theories but
no hard evidence can determine a serial killer before they
start killing, all that can be done is to convict as early as
possible once they start killing and keep them behind bars
so they cannot hurt anyone else.
• For more Information a link in the description has been
provided.

6. References
• Becker, F., & French, L. (2004). Making the links: child abuse, animal cruelty and domestic
violence. Child Abuse Review., 13(6), 399-414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/car.878
• Cahill, T. (2014). Buried dreams: Inside the mind of a serial killer. Open Road Media.
• Giannangelo, S. J. (1996). The psychopathology of serial murder: a theory of violence,
Westport, CT: Praeger
• Keppel, R. D. and Birnes, W. J. (2003). Profiling the serial killer: the efficacy of profiling,
The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations, 32(3), 129-168.
• Lee, J. L., and Choi, K. (2014). Serial Murder: An Exploration and Evaluation of Theories
and Perspectives. American International Journal of Contemporary Research 4(3) 99-106.
• Myers, W. C., Bukhanovskiy, A., Justen, E., Morton, R. J., Tilley, J., Adams, K., Vandagriff,
V. L. and Hazelwood, R. R. (2008). The relationship between serial sexual murder and
autoerotic asphyxiation. Forensic Science International, 176(2-3), 187-195.
• Wikipedia (photograph). (2014). Charles Manson [digital image]. Retrieved from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson
• Silvio, H., McCloskey, K. and Ramos-Grenier, J. (2006). Theoretical consideration of female
sexual predator serial killers in the United States, Journal of Criminal Justice, 34(3), 251-
259.
• Tithecott, R. (1997). Of men and monsters: Jeffrey Dahmer and the construction of the serial
killer. University of Wisconsin Press.
• Vigliotti, J. (Photograph). (2015). 10 Things You Never Knew About The BTK Killer
[digital image]. Retrieved from: http://listverse.com/2015/03/17/10-things-you-never-knew-
about-the-btk-killer/